1. Why did Leslie die off-stage?
I personally thinks that Leslie died off-stage is a delibrate action as to let the audience to imagine themself how exactly did Leslie died. This is a good thing as the director need not take dangerous scenes in which someone might be in danger while filming how Leslie died and this can trigger the audiences' imagination. At the same time, by letting Leslie die off-stage, audience might not expect Leslie to die at first.
2. Who/What does the Dark Lord represents?
To Jesse, his Dark Lord might be Death. Death had taken away his best friend, Leslie. Death left him with loneliness, sadness and grief.
To Leslie, I think that loneliness is her Dark Lord. This is because she had been teased by many of her classmates in school and left alone. Her only friend was Jesse. Together with Jesse, they created an imaginary world called Terabithia to escape from the hars reality or the problems they facd in the real world.
To me, my Dark Lord is stress. Stress is something which I cannot handle well and some of my school teachers are contributing to the stress I am experiencing right now. At home, I do not feel as much stress as I felt in school. This is because my parents do not nag at me to finish up my homework. The things they did to ensure me to do my homework is that they 'encourage' me. The encouragements they gave was totally different from nagging. If they were to nag at me, I probably will not do my homework at all.
3. Which version do you like the best and Why?
I like the novel better than the movie. Firstly, the novel contains the struggles in Jesse's heart when Leslie died. The descriptions o the strugles within Jesse's heart were vivid. I love it. As compared to watching the movie, the movie does not move me amuch as the novel does. Secondly, the movie took away all the opportunities to imagine. By reading the novel, I can imagine lots of things. The movie does not give the readers to imagine as much as the novel does. Lastly, the novel can help the readers to improve their vocabulary.

-Rouming-

Why did Leslie died off stage?

I think the director wants Leslie to die off-stage is because the director wanted Leslie to disappear off mysteriously and gives the audience a surprise. By doing this, the audience would not have expected an outcome of which Leslie died so suddenly. Also, this could let the audience focus on Jesse's character as it was not carried out specifically in the start of the movie. His character came out more by letting him show his emotions of how he would react when his best friend died and was his only friend in the world.

Who/what does the dark lord represents?

For Jesse, I think his dark lord would be his father. Often, Jesse would be scolded by his father for almost everything he does. Besides that, Jesse thinks that his father doesn't love or care about him. Even though Jesse's father ordered Jesse to do house chores but i think deep down in Jesse's father's heart, he cares and also loves Jesse alot. For example, at the end of the movie, he gave a set of racing car track to Jesse as a christmas present. On top of that, he also comforted Jesse when he broke down from the plight where his best friend, Leslie Burke, died.

For Leslie, the dark lord would be loneliness. As Leslie is the only child in her family, she cannot experience how it feels to have siblings. There is no one who can play with her or spend time often together. Furthermore, her parents are authors and they don't spend much time with Leslie as they have very busy schedules. In school, she gets teased by many and therefore nobody likes to hang out with her and her only friend is Jesse.

For me, my dark lord would be the obstacles i would face in life. The obstacles like learning to be a better person, facing more responsibilities, graduating from school and of course learning to defend yourself in the life where you start to work in the outside world, where everybody is a masquarade and you have to stay away from those who wear masks.

Which version do you like better and why?

I would prefer the movie version better as honestly, I'm not a person whose imagination can be very wild. By watching the movie, I can understand more of what is happening. Also, it described Terabithia beautifully in the movie unlike the novel, where it just overlooked the kingdom which was supposed to be a very important subject in the movie. In the movie, it's easier to see the action and to understand the characters as it not easy to write it out and decribe it fully.


- Huan Ting

Why did Leslie die off stage?

WHY DID LESLIE DIED OFF STAGE ?

I feel that this allows the audience to imagine the scenario of how she died. This also allow the director to have more time to focus on Jess' feeling and emotions about Leslie's death. The other reason should be the taking of that scene. It should be quite hard to take a scene of a girl falling off a rope above a creek and hitting her head, so in order not to endanger a life, Leslie died off stage.

WHO/WHAT DOES THE DARKLORD REPRESENT TO LESLIE, JESS AND ME ?

I think that loneliness is Leslie's darklord. It is why in the first place Leslie created Terebithia. Terebithia is a place she can escape from her loneliness as there is Jess with her.

I think that Jess' darklord is his father's love for his younger siblings. In the movie, he showed signs of jealousy when his father hug MayBelle and tuck MayBelle to bed.

My darklord is my Chinese Orchastra conductress. She has very high expectations and punish people by asking them play solo. I am afraid of being punished as I am afraid to play solo in front of everyone.

WHICH VERSION DO I LIKE BETTER AND WHY ?

I prefer the novel as more details were included. The novel also allows us to have our own point of view of Terebithia. In the movie, many things were either included or excluded, it is not the same as the original novel. Therefore i prefer the novel.

- JASLYN LIM (10)

WHY DID LESLIE DIE OFF STAGE?

I feel that allowing Leslie to die off-stage gives the audience a kind of curiosity and also to allow them to imagine the scenario of her drowning. Other than that, it will also be able to show how sad Jesse can be when his best friend died. I also think it will be tough if Leslie actually acts out the scene as the settings are very complicated with the rain and creek. In addition, it is very dangerous for a young girl to film falling down and hitting her head on the something.

WHO/WHAT DOES THE DARKLORD REPRESENT?

To Jesse, I think Gary Fulcher is his darklord. All Fulcher does to Jesse are bullying, teasing and punching. He also despises Jesse as he is easily bullied. Other than that, Fulcher makes Jesse inferior to himself and caused him to be keeping all his suffering in his heart. Jesse terribily disliked Fulcher for his fowl behaviour towards him and thus that made Fulcher his darklord.

To Leslie, I think her loneliness is her darklord. Leslie is the only child in her family and her parents are usually busy with work. Other than that, she had just transferred school and she was in a very new environment with no one she recognises.

To me, I feel that my piano teacher is my darklord. As a person who dislike practicing the piano, I usually get scolded by my piano teacher for not performing well in lessons. Thus I always dread going for piano lessons. Other that, my piano teacher is also very strict to me as she has high expectations for me.

WHICH VERSION DO YOU LIKE BETTER AND WHY?

For me, I prefer the novel version as it contains the original story instead of the changed details in the movie. In the movie, there are alot of changed details although it still remains interesting. The novel allows the audience to visualise the scene and let your imagination flow.


Sharon Long

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MOVIE AND NOVEL

part 2

- It was Ms Edmund's lessons when Leslie came in after being with Janice. (movie)
- It was Ms Myers's lessons when Leslie came in after being with Janice. (novel)

- Jesse lost his father's keys. ( movie)
- They did not mention about the losing of keys. (novel)

- Jesse had an iron hand when he was fighting his enemy. (movie)
- They did not mention about the iron hand. (novel)

- Leslie got caught by an owl. (movie)
- Leslie did not get caught by an owl. (novel)

-Janice Avery was the giant troll. (movie)
-Janice Avery was not the troll. (novel)

-At the end, Maybelle is able to feel like a princess in Terabithia. (movie)
- At the end, Maybelle did not feel like a princess in Terabithia. (novel)

- Jesse pushed Maybelle. (movie)
- Jesse did not push Maybelle. (novel)

- Jesse squeezed the paint Leslie gave to him into water of the creek. ( movie)
- Jesse did not squeeze the paint into the water of the creek. (novel)

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MOVIE AND NOVEL

part 1

MOVIE NOVEL

- Leslie said that she love to have dogs. (movie)
- She didn't mention anything about dogs. (novel)

- Maybelle and Jesse did not see Leslie's family moving beside theirs. (movie)
- Maybelle and Jesse saw Leslie's family moving beside theirs. (novel)

- They found a car with old things things inside. (movie)
- They didn't mention about the car at all.(novel)

- They rebuilt the tree house. (movie)
- They did not rebuild the tree house. (novel)

- Jesse brought Leslie back home.(movie)
- Jesse didn't bring Leslie to his house. (novel)

- The cleaner went into Janice's classroom. (movie)
- A teacher went into Janice's classroom. (novel)

- Jesse had to wear a girl's shoe.(movie)
- Jesse wore his own shoes.(novel)

- Leslie made jokes of Ms Myers. (movie)
- Leslie did not make jokes about Ms Myers. (novel)

- The class had music in their classroom. (movie)
- The class spent their music lessons in the teacher's room on a worn-out rug. (novel)

-Jesse's sneakers was thrown away.(movie)
-Jesse's shoe was not thrown away.(novel)